Basic Strategy Of Advertising Translation

In modem society, advertising, the embodiment of commerce, is becoming an important part of our daily life. The intensification of international exchanges and the severe competition involve a growing need for advertising and thus of translation. However, the study of advertising translation is far from satisfactory to its need, and the traditional translation theories seem increasingly inadequate. That is because advertisements are of a very practical type of writing with high commercial value, and the ultimate purpose of all advertisements is the same-----to promote sales. If the translator rigidly adheres to the original form andcontent in advertising translation, the translation may not produce the persuasive effect and may lead to the failure of promoting sales in the target market. Therefore, a more practical theory and translation strategy are called for.As a break with the traditional translation ideas and an important complement to translation studies, the functionalist concept of translation put forward by some German scholars has opened up a new perspective to the study of advertising translation. According to Vermeer's "Skopostheorie", any form of translational action may be conceived as an action, and any action has its purpose. The prime principle determining any translation process is the purpose (Skopos) of the overall translational action, and translation strategies and methods are determined by the purpose and the intended function of the target text (translation skopos). Within the framework of Skopostheorie, the skopos rule is the top-ranking rule for any translation, and the other rules, e.g. the coherence rule and the fidelity rule, are subordinate to the skopos rule.In general, a good advertisement is undoubtedly successful in persuading its audience. However, due to the barriers of language and culture, this advertisement, when translated, may not be successful to the target audience. That is because whenthe advertisement is designed, the advertiser is sure that the source audience can understand it and accept it on the source language and cultural background. But when the situation is changed, the persuasive effective in the source culture may not be produced in the target culture. Only when the original advertisement is adapted to the target language and cultural standards when it is translated, can the target audience easily understand what is advertised and be likely to accept the persuasion and buy the advertised product. Therefore, in order to achieve the special purpose of advertisements, and develop the special persuasive function at its best, a particulartranslation strategy ---- target-language-culture oriented strategy should be takenas the basic strategy in advertising translation.Since target-language-culture oriented strategy requires that the translation of an advertisement should be adapted to target language and culture, this thesis makes further researches into the linguistic characteristics and the cultural features of advertising English and advertising Chinese. First, the thesis deals with target language orientation on lexical level, syntatic level and rhetorical level. Second, this thesis makes a contrastive analysis of influence on Chinese and English advertising by worldviews, norms and values of these two cultures.With the help of some authentic examples of advertisements, the thesis makes a practical study of advertising translation in the aspects of tradename, slogan and advertising text on the basis of target-language-culture oriented strategy. In a word, based on the purpose and main functions of advertisements, target-language-culture oriented strategy is advocated as the basic strategy of advertising translation.